Up until now, there have been proposed a wide variety of systems for providing a cable television service, hereinlater simply referred to as “CATV service”. The CATV service includes a television broadcasting service provided from a plurality of cable television stations for a fringe and local area, and a service for a connection with a computer communication network such as for example an internet.
The broadcasting programs of this CATV service include contents concerning a weather forecast, traffic information, a program of an event, music, a movie, and the like. A user subscribes to a cable television station, hereinlater simply referred to as “CATV station” in a service area where he or she lives, to have a dedicated connection line laid from the CATV station to his or her room. The user receives the contents through the dedicated line, and pays a fee charged in exchange for the contents to the CATV station.
The conventional CATV system, however, encounters a drawback that the user cannot receive the contents from the CATV station using a mobile communication terminal such as, for example, CATV mobile mounted on a vehicle resulting from the fact that the user receives the contents through the dedicated line.
The conventional CATV system encounters another drawback that the user cannot receive any CATV service when the user moves into a service area other than the service area of the CATV station to which the user has subscribed resulting from the fact that the user subscribes to the CATV station in the related service area.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a system which makes it possible for a user to receive contents from the CATV station using a mobile communication terminal regardless of whether or not the user moves into a service area other than the service area of the CATV station to which the user has subscribed.
The present invention is made with a view to overcoming the above mentioned drawbacks and is directed to a cable television system, a relay apparatus, a center apparatus, and a cable television providing method, which enable a mobile communication terminal to receive common contents delivered from a center apparatus through each of a plurality of relay apparatuses respectively installed in a plurality of service areas even though the mobile communication terminal moves from one service area to another service area.